Many electric utility companies utilize serial communication systems in their distribution grids to automate substations and to collect data from various meters, sensors, etc. Utility devices (e.g., meters, sensors, etc.) that have traditionally been interconnected over serial protocols (e.g., IEC-60870-5-101, a.k.a. “IEC-101” or “T-101”) may now be transported over an IP network using an IP-ready protocol (e.g., IEC-60870-5-104, a.k.a. “IEC-104” or “T-104”). Generally, this is accomplished by interconnecting the end points with respective routers, which may translate the serial transmissions to IP transmissions, and vice versa, thus emulating to the end points as if they were communicating directly with each other. Newer utility devices may utilize the IEC-104 protocol directly, i.e., utilize IP as a transport protocol instead of a serial communication link. These newer devices may be directly interconnected with a router without requiring translation from a serial transmission to an IP transmission.
One noted problem associated with heterogeneous networks, i.e., networks with devices that utilize disparate protocols such as IEC-101 and IEC-104, is that supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) master controllers will be required to be upgraded to utilize the IEC-104 protocol. However, such a SCADA upgrade cannot be done immediately due to the vast number of legacy devices in the field that support only the IEC-101 protocol. Unless all these legacy devices are upgraded to support the IEC-104 protocol, the SCADA controllers cannot be upgraded simultaneously to the IEC-104 protocol. Thus, utilities are adopting a phased approach of upgrading devices and SCADA controllers from IEC-101 to IEC-104. This may result in scenarios where there are more than one SCADA master in the network, i.e., both an IEC-101 SCADA master and an IEC-104 SCADA master.